MotoGP Rant: Make My Monogomme, Punk

MotoGP's fearless leaders have finally seen sense and brought in a one tyre rule, or monogomme as it is succinctly known in a couple of foreign languages. (Well, monogomma in Italian, but I prefer the Franglicized version of the word in honour of Michelin). This has resulted in various snobs and purists erupting into the kind of wailing and crying that you wouldn't normally see outside a South American funeral parade.

The trouble is, MotoGP is a championship for prototype machinery. It's on the ragged edge of technology, with things like pneumatic valve actuation and traction control packages that cost a lot more than your house. Surely, they wail, they should be allowed prototype tyres too? Isn't switching to a monogomme a travesty that will lead to the destruction of the sport? Well, every single other major motorsports championship in the world seems to be doing OK with their single tyre rules. Pretty much every minor championship too, come to think of it. (I mean, AMA Superbike had a tyre war this year, but the soul-destroyingly tedious AMA Superbike series has now been poisoned, shot, hanged and pushed off a bridge into an icy river.)

Wouldn't a single tyre rule in MotoGP just turn it into a glorified version of... whisper it... world superbikes? God forbid that you'd want to be more like a championship with unpredictable races, multiple winners, close racing, and from next year, factory or semi-factory teams from Aprilia, BMW, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha! Presumably they would like MotoGP to be, as a certain arrogant, whoring aristocrat described Boremula One, like a game of chess.

Does a single tyre rule change the riders' talent, or the teams' ability to produce a great bike? No, of course not. What it changes is the gap between the haves and have nots. Let's get real, are all Bridgestone MotoGP tyres equal? Hell, no. Stoner and Rossi get what they ask for, and everyone else gets what they're given. If Suzuki and Kawasaki get equal treatment, then why did they just bring out significally altered chassis so they could try to use the tyres developed for Stoner and Rossi?

Tyre wars suck, and the tyre war in the last two years of MotoGP has been one of the suckiest in history. Again and again, Michelin runners, who make up a significant part of the grid, have struggled with rubbish tyres. I'm sure the purists have been juicing themselves with glee at the prototype competition, while the rest of us have been disgusted at having to snooze through yet another boring "race". Even Laguna Seca would have been a three-way battle between Rossi, Stoner and Hayden if it hadn't been for the tyre war. (Nicky kicked everyone's backside when the front runners were all on Michelins, don't tell me he would still have been 30 seconds behind the leader.)

At the end of the day, it's a big reality check for the whingeing purists. MotoGP isn't about prototypes. It's about entertainment. Companies don't spend fortunes plastering their logos on bikes because of prototypes, they do it because there are millions of potential customers watching. The hardcore, purist fans are sadly meaningless in all this, they simply aren't a big enough market to bother about. It's all about the average fan, who doesn't know or care about pneumatic valves or engine management units, but loves to see a damn good race.

If you want proof, look at Boremula One. Even they have changed rules to try and make their tedious parade of boring cheats look interesting. They have banned traction control (Gasp! But how will racing improve the breed now?) and force drivers to use both hard and soft compound monogomme tyres during the course of each "race" (Oh, won't somebody please think of the prototype competition?) Is MotoGP above this? Above commercial reality? No.

There's no point crowing about Laguna Seca. One race in the entire season has had a major battle. The rest haven't. One way to make the racing closer is to make everybody use the same tyres. Now it's going to happen. I'm looking forward to it. Rant over.

MotoGP Motegi: And Then There Were Eight

Valentino Rossi cemented his legend at Motegi, Japan with victory in the MotoGP race, securing his eighth world championship title. Casey Stoner took second place ahead of Dani Pedrosa in the cool weather conditions. Spanish rookie Jorge Lorenzo started from pole position, taking advantage of his grippy Michelin qualifying tyres.

When the red lights went out, Casey Stoner's Marlboro Ducati made its usual blistering launch off the line. Dani Pedrosa's tiny body weight helped him to fly into second position from the third row of the grid on his Repsol Honda, while the little Spaniard's American team-mate Nicky Hayden maintained his qualifying position of third place. Valentino Rossi needed to finish on the podium to guarantee him a sixth top-class world title to add to his two in the junior classes. He was in fourth place ahead of his FIAT Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, but the crazy youngster overtook Rossi after just a few corners.

At the front, Stoner and Pedrosa were already starting to pull out a gap over Hayden, who was holding up Lorenzo and Rossi. The Doctor had no intention of letting the front runners escape, and nipped past his young team-mate on the second lap. Moments later, Dani Pedrosa used his low speed acceleration advantage to overtake Casey Stoner on a short straight and take the lead. Rossi soon passed Nicky Hayden for third place and set off after his two rivals. It immediately became obvious that Rossi was not going to settle for a podium spot, but was going all out for his first win at Motegi since the 500cc 2-stroke era. He set a series of fastest laps as he latched onto Stoner's back tyre.

Most of the action at the Motegi circuit was happening at the slow, downhill hairpin that turns right and leads into an underpass, where Motegi's separate tri-oval racetrack passes overhead. This was where Casey Stoner made his move on Pedrosa. It was a fair move that may have involved the slightest touch between the pair, but Stoner hates contact with other riders, and took his left hand off the bars to wave an apology to the diminutive Spaniard. Maybe if Rossi had waved apologies to Stoner as they repeatedly clashed at Laguna Seca, the Aussie would have been less of a huff after the race, but it seems a tad doubtful. Pedrosa was struggling to maintain the pace, and Rossi soon flashed past to steal second place...

Read the rest of my MotoGP Motegi Race Review at Motorbikesport.

BSB Silverstone: Shakey is Champion

Shane Byrne finally secured his second British Superbike title at Silverstone, while Leon Camier and Leon Haslam took the victories in a day of crashing on the flat, featureless track.

Race 1
Cal Crutchlow started from pole position, but it was his HM Plant Honda team-mate Leon Haslam who blasted off the grid and into the lead. Crutchlow slotted into second place in front of Rizla Suzuki rider Tom Sykes, while James Ellison came from nowhere to take fourth on his Bike Animal Honda, ahead of NW200's Michael Rutter in fifth.

Karl Harris was running well until he flew off the track across the grass, luckily finding some tarmac used by the F1 cars. He had already had a hair-raising moment as he launched past Ellison at the hairpin, hanging Rutter out to dry at the same time. Harris rejoined, but was a long way down the pack. In all the confusion, Michael Laverty took his Relentless Suzuki into fourth spot.

There was soon carnage at the idiotic chicane which leads into the final corner. This slow, slow left/right flick has no place on a major bike racing track, and this would become painfully obvious as Haslam turned left, only to be torpedoed by Tom Sykes. Haslam limped over to his bike, motioned to the marshals to pick it up, and rejoined the race. Tom Sykes also rejoined, but was delayed as he bump started his Suzuki. This collision was eerily reminiscent of the pair's crash at Oulton Park earlier this year, when Haslam was excluded from the race results for a kamikaze attack on Sykes. This time, with the roles reversed, Sykes was excluded from the results and suffered a swingeing 12 place penalty on the grid for race 2...

Read the rest of my British Superbike Silverstone race review at Motorbikesport.

WSBK: Corser to BMW, Finally!

At last, Troy Corser has officially signed to race the new BMW bike in the World Superbike championship next year. The rumours had been very strong for a very long time, but as the time passed and no announcement was made, people were starting to wonder whether the Aussie would stay at Yamaha. Corser is a double WSBK champion, well known as being the best development rider in the business, which is why BMW have snapped him up.

He will ride alongside Catalan hero Ruben Xaus, who is hugely popular due to being a raving lunatic, and is sometimes nicknamed Ruben Chaos due to his erratic riding and crashes. It's a great strategy from the German company. Hire one guy who will turn your new superbike into a winner, and another guy who is loved for his rostrum or straw bales riding style. No publicity is bad publicity, after all. Xaus will either be competing with the leaders or tumbling through gravel traps. Either way, the commentators will keep saying the words bee, emm and doubleyou, which is the name of the game.

This means that the race for the second Yamaha Italia seat alongside Englishman Tom Sykes is still as mystifying as ever. There doesn't appear to be anyone available with a lot of WSBK experience and race-winning talent. Well, there is current Kawasaki crasher Regis Laconi, but he's infuriatingly hit and miss. This led him to losing the WSBK title to his team-mate James Toseland when they were riding for the factory Ducati squad. The serious rumours are currently about Ben Spies and his amazing technicolour pay packet, although a couple of other guys have tried out the bike in testing. We'll have to wait and see.

WSBK Silly Season Update

World Superbike usually has a silly season deserving of the name, and this year is no different. Let's have a look at some of the more recent developments.

Max Biaggi has signed for Aprilia to race their new RSV4 superbike. The Roman Emperor won the 250GP title 4 times for Aprilia and now has a 2-year contract in his pocket. The RSV4 is brand new, but the V4 engine looks like turning the bike into a missile (especially with the monkey-sized Biaggi on board). The only question is whether Max can develop the thing to go around corners.

Alex Hofmann is reckoned to be in pole position to grab the second Aprilia seat, having carried out a lot of testing for the team, but this isn't nailed down.

Shane Byrne is being hotly tipped to replace Biaggi at the Sterilgarda Ducati team, having proven his speed on a Ducati 1098 in BSB this year. His team mate should be the current Sterilgarda Superstock rider Alex Polita.

Of course, current Sterilgarda rider Ruben Xaus has already signed for the new BMW team.

Overpaid Texan Ben Spies is the new favourite to move to Yamaha Italia, with his MotoGP dreams shattered by his hilariously high wage demands. (Nobody gives a rat's rear end about AMA Superbike, so winning it impresses nobody. Get a grip, man!) The thinking is that Yamaha USA are prepared to pony up the required cash. Of course, it is not yet clear that Troy Corser is moving to BMW. There are still rumours that the veteran Aussie will stay at Yamaha to develop the new big bang R1.

Just to throw in another rumour, it has been said that French MotoGP reject Sylvain Guintoli has been testing "Haga's Yamaha". This is a bit of a laugh, as any hardcore WSBK fan knows that Haga's Yamaha is utterly unrideable by anyone else due to his outlandish setup. Even the marvellously deranged James Whitham thought the Haga setup was terrifying when he tried it a couple of years ago. Nitro Nori basically jacks up the rear suspension so high that the bike is standing on its nose at all times, meaning that it will turn inside any other bike, provided that you are insanely talented enough to stay on the thing (and only Haga has the right mix of talent and insanity). Anyway Sylvain has been riding a Yamaha Italia bike (almost certainly on a Corser setup), but most rumours link Guintoli with the Frog's leg chomping Yamaha France squad alongside David "Much less talented than his brother" Checa.

Perennial BSB bridesmaid Leon Haslam is said to be moving to the Stiggy Honda team, which will apparently be moving up to WSBK from WSS. Haslam the Younger has raced in WSBK before, for Renegade Ducati a few years back. A lot of BSB fans will rue the move, considering the number of people who reach this blog by googling "Leon Haslam girlfriend" (searching for pictures of his delightful lady friend Oli, I presume.)

The Ten Kate squad seems to be running Ryuichi Kiyonari, Carlos Checa and Johnny Rea, who has impressed mightily in WSS and will be gagging to be back on a Superbike, having won races in BSB and in one of the Japanese endurance races alongside Kiyo. Squeaky voiced assassin Kenan Sofuoglu will seemingly return to WSS after a nightmare year on the big bikes.

Max Neukirchner is staying at Alstare Suzuki, having starred for them this year. There are rumours that Yukio Kagayama will stay with the team despite constantly crashing and hurting himself this year, but that Fonsi Nieto will get the boot.

Kawasaki will need to replace Regis Laconi, who has had enough of highsiding the green machine in every single race (well, it seems that way!) and may have Ant West fobbed off on them from the MotoGP squad (out of the frying pan into the fire, eh, Westy?).

So there are the current Silly Season rumours. Some of them confirmed, some of them probable, some of them nonsense. Silly Season rolls on.

WSBK Vallelunga: Nitro Nori Nicks Double

Noriyuki Haga took a stunning double victory as the World Superbike championship visited Vallelunga, Italy. A late crash in the second race for pole position holder Troy Bayliss means that he has not secured the title just yet, while two riders escaped unhurt from a horrific crash at the start of race two.

Race 1
The Xerox Ducati of Troy Bayliss leapt off the pole position slot like a scalded cat, swerving in front of the chasing pack as he headed for the first corner. Max Biaggi made his usual great start to slot his Sterilgarda Ducati into second place. With Rome just 30km away, the little Roman Emperor was fired up by an extremely partisan crowd of Biaggi fans. Next in line were the two Santander Yamaha Italia bikes of Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser. Haga quickly sneaked past Biaggi when the Roman entered the slow hairpin on a wide line, then kept up the momentum as he used the superior speed of the Yamaha to pass Bayliss for the lead.

It would prove to be a difficult race for Bayliss, as he could not keep up the same pace as the leader Haga. He lost out to Biaggi, Corser and Kiyonari in fairly quick succession, dropping to 5th place. However, he regained a spot when Ryuichi Kiyonari incredibly dropped the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda at the hairpin in a carbon copy of James Toseland's crash when he raced for that team last year. The bike skittered across the tarmac at no more than 30mph, but something was broken and Kiyo trundled back to the pits to retire. Bayliss, however soon lost the place to Kiyonari's team-mate Carlos Checa, who was having an excellent race from the third row.

At the front, Haga was still flawless, but Biaggi and Corser beat each other up for 2nd position. Biaggi managed to latch onto Haga's rear tyre, while Corser dropped back and started fighting with Checa for the final podium spot. However, the pace of the two leaders faded, and with a couple of fast laps, Corser was back in the mix. Despite some big slides, Haga was untouchable, and stretched away on the last lap to take the victory. Biaggi finished second and Corser third. Max Neukirchner brazenly shot past both Bayliss and Checa in one fell swoop to grab 4th, while Checa held off the Aussie for 5th.

Race 2
The second race started with one of the most terrifying crashes that World Superbike has seen in years. Seconds after launching from the start line, Max Biaggi and Troy Corser touched in the left-hand kink in the straight, setting the Italian's Ducati lurching from side to side as other riders streamed past at around 130mph. Finally, Max was thrown from the bike, which was immediately hit by the hapless Kenan Sofuoglu on his Ten Kate Honda. Biaggi was spun round like a top before tumbling through the gravel at high speed, his Ducati being totally destroyed as it cartwheeled end over end. When Sofuoglu's machine hit Biaggi's bike, it disappeared from underneath him. The Turkish star flew through the air, gracefully flipping over and landing on his back before tumbling through the gravel like a rag doll. His Honda was reduced to an expensive ball of smoking wreckage. Amazingly, both riders escaped with just bruising from this monstrous crash.

Because Sofuoglu and Biaggi had travelled straight on while the track kinked left, they were clear of the tarmac and the race carried on. Troy Bayliss had taken the lead again, while this time he was followed by Haga and Corser. It would be Bayliss and Haga who battled for the lead, while Corser kept a close watch from 3rd place, trying to sneak alongside the others from time to time. The fight for the lead was thrilling, with the Yamaha fastest in a straight line but the Ducati breathtakingly quick in the fast corners. At one point, Haga and Bayliss were physically touching in the same fast left-hand kink that had claimed Biaggi, but travelling much faster than Max had been as they had accelerated all the way from the last corner.

Bayliss used his speed in the fast corners to pass Haga, but the Yamaha could swoop past on the straights and stay in front into slow corners thanks to Haga's insanely late braking. Haga ran wide into the last corner, letting Bayliss drag alongside him over the start line, and again the pair touched in the left-hand kink at the end of the straight. It was an awe-inspiring demonstration of World Superbike racing at its very best, with two legends shoulder to shoulder at high speed, having total confidence in each other.

Bayliss knew that he could only seal the world title if he extended his championship lead to at least 100 points by the end of the day. With Corser in 3rd place, 2nd would not be enough for Bayliss and he decided to go all out for the victory. However, on the last lap, his young team-mate Michel Fabrizio, also a local boy, had done Bayliss a favour by pushing Corser back to 4th. Unfortunately, Bayliss had no way of knowing that 2nd place would now be enough to win the championship. Like a few people over the weekend, Bayliss "did a Toseland" at the hairpin, sliding along the tarmac in a shower of sparks at embarrassingly low speed. He kept the throttle pinned to stop the big 1200cc V-twin engine from stalling, but by the time he had picked the bike up, found a gear and restarted, he was in 16th place.

Haga was now clear in the lead as he crossed the line for his second victory of the day, celebrating a brilliant double by taking his pair of young sons onto the podium. The little Japanese hooligans had the sense to run off when the champagne was sprayed, but return in time to be in the podium photographs. Fabrizio kept up his yo-yoing form to take 2nd place, while Troy Corser took another podium. Neukirchner and Checa came home 4th and 5th again, with the Spaniard having lost precious seconds at the race start as he backed off, having been convinced that the huge crash in front of him would result in a red flag.

Troy Bayliss could have won the title at Vallelunga, but unfortunately the rostrum or straw bales tactic failed him on this occasion. He still has a huge lead in the championship race, and should sew up the title next time out.

BSB: GSE Ditch Ducati for Yamaha

The GSE team, currently running an Airwaves-sponsored Ducati team in the British Superbike Championship, are switching to Yamaha bikes next year. It is yet another surprise from the GSE squad, who have spent most of this year spitting the dummy about BSB technical regs (i.e. the failure of the regs to give Ducati a massive performance advantage.) At least the team now have a solid 3-year deal, which should stop them from regularly claiming that they are pulling out of the BSB series.

Currently, GSE don't build their own bikes, but run factory Ducatis built as race machines in the Ducati factory. The new deal with Yamaha will mean that GSE will have to build their race bikes out of road bikes like everyone else, but a team of their standing will easily find spanner monkeys able to take the indicators off. They will also receive support from the Yamaha Italia squad, who are the semi-factory Yamaha team in World Superbike.

All in all, there is little doubt that the GSE team will be winning races with their new Yamaha bikes in very short order. It will be fascinating to see the new big bang engined R1 being run by a major, well-sponsored team.

The bad news is that bike racing legend Rob Mac, who has run the Yamaha BSB program for donkeys' years, looks to be out on his ear. He has struggled to find enough sponsorship to recreate the glory days when he won 3 BSB titles on the trot with ex-GP star Niall MacKenzie. It all went wrong the year after that when the team ran the disastrous new fuel-injected bike with last-minute sponsorship from Richard Branson's Virgin company. Lately, the team ran Pirelli tyres, which were poor compared to the Dunlops and especially Michelins. This year, they have been unable to use their knowledge of Pirellis (now the control tyre in BSB) due to their rider Karl Harris's horrible luck, which includes being smacked in the face by a flying Suzuki and punted off by a Ducati.

The GSE team have not confirmed their riders yet, but a move to Yamahas wouldn't be what Shakey Byrne was looking for, having rediscovered his love of Ducati bikes. Leon Camier starred last year on a Honda, so a Yamaha should be no problem at all for him.

Yamaha seem to be focussing a major campaign on the UK to shift the revolutionary new big bang engined 2009 model R1. Not only are they snatching one of the top teams in the BSB paddock, but they have also given Tom Sykes a ride in WSBK with Yamaha Italia. These two moves seem to be part of a concerted effort to dominate the UK market. Next year's racing will be very interesting.

WSBK: Tom Sykes Bags Factory Yamaha

Tom Sykes has pulled off a major coup by bagging a seat on a Santander Yamaha Italia machine for the 2009 World Superbike championship. This is the ride that was vacated when Noriyuki Haga signed for Xerox Ducati. The likeable Yorkshireman, nicknamed "Grinner" because he is always smiling, has impressed with his rides on the Rizla Suzuki in BSB, plus a couple of excellent WSBK wildcard rides.

This is fantastic news for Sykes, who was one of the crop of youngsters who exploded onto the BSB scene last year, along with Cal Crutchlow and Leon Camier. Many people rated Sykes as the best prospect as he is the least erratic of the trio (though the other two are also hugely talented and will surely arrive in a world championship series in the next couple of years.) His first year in BSB was on the Paul Bird Stobart Honda, where great performances secured a switch to the semi-factory Rizla Suzuki team in BSB for this year. Three wins in the British Superbike championship, along with a 2nd place finish behind Troy Bayliss as a World Superbike wildcard, have brought about his dream move to the Yamaha Italia team in World Supers.

Conspiracy theorists are already rubbing their hands with glee and claiming that the signing of a relatively cheap rider like Sykes frees up much of the budget that had been paying for WSBK legend Nori Haga, and that this money is now available to re-sign Troy Corser for another year. Corser is universally acknowledged to be the best development rider in WSBK, and had been hotly tipped to switch to the new BMW squad to help develop their bike next year.

However, Yamaha have a new bike too, and the most interesting thing about the new R1 is that it has a "Big Bang" engine. To briefly explain what a big bang engine is, it is an engine that fires all of its cylinders in a short time period, with the little bangs from each cylinder's combustion so close together that they blur into one big bang. This is in contrast to a conventional "Screamer" engine, where the cylinders are fired with an even spacing, which makes a higher-pitched screaming sound. Big bang engines are more rideable and have better traction. Nobody seems to be quite sure why this is, but for more info check out this article on big bang engines penned by Julian Ryder for Superbike Planet. (Incidentally, this isn't the first Yamaha superbike to use a form of big bang technology. A strange, hybrid big bang engine was used in BSB for a while, as explained on Crash.net.)

The new Yamaha engine means that anyone buying an R1 roadbike will benefit from the same big bang engine technology as Valentino Rossi uses in MotoGP. And this new technology means that surely Yamaha will be desperate to retain Troy Corser to make the 2009 R1 work on the racetrack. That is the current gossip, anyway. Sykes is confirmed, Corser is not. It will be no surprise if the Aussie re-signs for Yamaha in the near future.

MotoGP Indianapolis: Rossi Wins in the Wind

Valentino Rossi took his fourth win on the trot as the MotoGP circus paid its first visit to Indianapolis, as the race was red-flagged due to the circuit being battered by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Nicky Hayden took second place, and Jorge Lorenzo third in the changeable wet and windy conditions. Qualifying had been in the dry, and Valentino Rossi had hurled his FIAT Yamaha to pole position in front of Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.

The red lights went out, and Casey Stoner took the lead on the Marlboro Ducati. Incredibly, local(ish) hero Nicky Hayden had made a blistering start on his Repsol Honda to take second place, in front of Team Scot Honda rookie Andrea Dovizioso. Stoner almost immediately ran wide in the slippery conditions, letting young Dovi through into the lead and Hayden into second place. The Kentucky Kid's pneumatic-valved Honda was far quicker than Dovizioso's spring-valved customer version down the straights, and Hayden blasted past into the lead.

Valentino Rossi had made a poor start, getting away in fouth place, but after waiting a while to let things settle down, he started to pick up speed. He must have smiled as he overtook Casey Stoner, who was struggling to stay smooth on his Bologna Bullet in the treacherous conditions. Jorge Lorenzo put up more of a fight, but Rossi was supremely confident in his Bridgestone tyres as he passed the young Spaniard, then shot past Dovizioso's underpowered satellite Honda bike. However, Nicky Hayden was setting a searing pace at the front, and Rossi was able to gain on him only little by little...

The rest of my MotoGP report from Indianapolis is here on Motorbikesport.

BSB Croft: Leons, Leons Everywhere.

The two Leons shared the spoils in the British Superbike visit to Croft, with Camier winning race one and Haslam winning race two. Shane Byrne did not manage to seal the championship as he had hoped, but still holds a commanding lead. Cal Crutchlow had taken pole position for the second year in a row, in front of Michael Rutter, Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam.

Race One
Cal Crutchlow took the hole shot from pole position on his HM Plant Honda, while Tom Sykes rocketed off the line to take second place on his Rizla Suzuki. Michael Rutter grabbed third place on the NW200 Ducati, but had a frantic first lap, losing out to Haslam on the second HM Plant bike and Shane Byrne on the first of the Airwaves Ducati machines. At the last turn, Tom Sykes managed to block pass Crutchlow and take the lead, but the Suzuki was much slower through the fast corners than the chasing Honda.

Crutchlow seemed to be riding erratically, running wide in corners, and later revealed that he had a gear selection problem and kept finding false neutrals. His team-mate Haslam sneaked past and took off after Sykes. In the background, Leon Camier had risen from sixth to fifth place after a battle with fellow Ducati rider Michael Rutter. Camier proceeded to set fastest laps as he homed in on his team mate Byrne. Back at the front, Leon Haslam took advantage of a poor corner exit by Sykes to draw alongside, and pass into Tower corner.

Leon Camier was on a mission, and took a tight line at the hairpin to launch past Shakey Byrne, who was taking his usual wide, swooping route around the slowest corner on the track. Another false neutral from Crutchlow saw him run wide at Tower. Camier easily passed to take third, and Byrne just managed to sneak through for fourth. The giraffe-like Camier was now by far the most impressive rider on track, passing first Sykes then Haslam to take the lead and start to pull out a gap which he held to the chequered flag to take his second win of the season. Third place was then the subject of open warfare between Sykes, Byrne and the still-erratic Crutchlow. Into the last corner, Byrne was in third, but a banzai move from Sykes saw the Suzuki slam into the side of Shakey's Ducati, pushing them both well wide. Crutchlow saw his chance and nipped into fourth, but Sykes managed to hold him off and secure third place, immediately turning round to apologize to Byrne for the strong pass. Shakey was unimpressed, shaking his head mournfully as he crossed the line in fifth...

That's your taster. To get the full skinny, read my full review of the Croft round of BSB at Motorbikesport.

WSBK: Haga to Replace Bayliss?

Very strong rumours are claiming that the hottest seat in World Superbike, the Xerox Ducati ride, will go to Noriyuki Haga. Nobody had put the Japanese star on their silly season rumour lists as a replacement for Aussie legend Troy Bayliss, but it seems like Ducati Corse may have pulled off a major coup by stealing Haga from Yamaha.

For most of his racing career, Nori Haga has been a Yamaha man. The only major break between him and the Japanese factory was in 2003-4, when he raced in MotoGP for Aprilia, then in WSBK for a satellite Ducati squad. This makes it all the more surprising that Haga would leave Yamaha for the Ducati factory team.

However, there are some reasons why this move would not be such a major shock. Firstly, Haga has never won the WSBK title, despite coming close on various occasions. The nearest miss was when he was banned for taking the stimulant ephedrine, which was contained in a herbal diet supplement that he was taking. It was a controversial ban as most people did not believe that Haga obtained any performance advantage. Motorcycle racing ain't 100m sprinting, after all. Anyway, time is a-ticking for Haga to grab the title, and what better place than Ducati? The Italian team always seem to benefit from rule changes by the WSBK organisers (the Italian FG Sport company) that, by sheer coincidence, always give Ducati the rule changes that they had been demanding.

The main reason may be technical. Haga is notorious for refusing to use technical advances because he wants to have more feeling with the bike. After his disastrous year on the Aprilia RS3 Cube in MotoGP, during which he crashed 28 times, he said that he preferred an analogue bike, while the Aprilia was digital. (The RS3 Cube engine was basically 3 cylinders sawed off from an F1 engine, with masses of trick electronics that never stopped the bike throwing its hapless riders over the handlebars. It was generally considered to be all but unrideable.) As technical writer Neil Spalding said during a recent Eurosport TV broadcast, the Yamaha R1 is by far the most complicated bike in WSBK, and arguably more complicated than most MotoGP bikes.

Nori must hate this. The thought of riding a Ducati, which also has very trick MotoGP-derived traction control, but is probably a far simpler bike than the Yamaha overall, must be hugely tempting for him. Especially since Yamaha have been investigating yet another black box, active damping control, which would be yet another thing to think about rather than simply jumping on the bike and riding it fast. It could be that the Yamaha R1 is just too clever for its own good, and Haga has had enough.

If these rumours are true, it will be fascinating to see Haga back on a Ducati. He won several races the last time he raced on the Italian bikes in WSBK. Could this be his last chance to win the title?

WSBK: Bayliss and Kiyo Win At Soggy Donington

Troy Bayliss and Ryuichi Kiyonari took the victories in the European round of the World Superbike championship at Donington Park. The British wildcards also put in a strong showing in the changeable weather conditions.

Race 1
Although the weather was unpredictable from one minute to the next, it was surprisingly dry when the first race started. Former British Superbike champion Ryuichi Kiyonari took the lead on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. BSB regular Tom Sykes briefly took second place on his Rizla Suzuki, but was soon overtaken by Troy Bayliss on the Xerox Ducati, who was determined to finally score a victory on his last ever visit to the track. Bayliss took the lead when Kiyonari pushed too hard on the greasy track and lowsided out of the race at the Old Hairpin. Sykes was not prepared to watch the Australian disappear, and he passed Bayliss, then proceeded to pull out a lead of over three seconds.

Unfortunately, Santander Yamaha rider Noriyuki Haga was having one of his bad weekends. His engine blew up and started spewing smoke. Incredibly, the Japanese star did not pull over, but trundled round for most of the lap, even though he had clearly seen the blue smoke pouring from the bike. As he rounded Coppice corner, treacherous enough in the dry, some oil leaked out onto the track. It was invisible in the damp conditions, and riders started flying over handlebars like some kind of rodeo competition. Troy Corser highsided for approximately the sixth time of the weekend, and stumbled off in great pain. Makoto Tamada, who has been all but invisible on the Kawasaki this year, decided that he would like to feature in a few more crash videos. The ex-MotoGP race winner flew off his bike in a massive highside that saw the green machine flip expensively over and over. Carlos Checa joined in the fun with his second crash of the race (what can you say? The guy has class). Alstare Suzuki star Max Neukirchner dared to be different by falling off at another corner.

The race was red-flagged, and everybody who had fallen off was barred from re-starting. We would have an aggregate race! The times from the two halves of the race would be added together, meaning that the positions on track did not necessarily bear any relation to the positions in the official standings. Woo-hoo!


That was the taster. Read my whole review of the Donington Park round of the World Superbike championship at Motorbikesport to find out what happened in the second part of race 1, and in the wet race 2.

MotoGP: Is Sete Gibernau Out Of His Tree?

The return of Sete Gibernau to MotoGP is one of the strongest rumours in the current silly season, with claims that there will be a 5th Ducati run for him. Has Sete gone mad? Why would he want to leap back into the MotoGP cauldron?

For those of you with short memories, Sete Gibernau is one of the best riders never to win a world championship in the top GP class, up there with the likes of Biaggi and Mamola. For two years, 2003 and 2004, Sete was the only person to give Valentino Rossi a run for his money. In 2003, the pair were on essentially identical Honda bikes and Michelin tyres, with Rossi in the factory HRC team and Gibernau in the factory-supported Gresini garage. Sete had been a journeyman rider, with one 500cc win to his name, but when his young team mate Daijiro Kato was killed in the opening round at Suzuka, something changed inside Sete. With Kato's number 74 on his leathers as a tribute, he decided to win.

And he did win, and he kept winning; 4 races that year. He battled with Rossi all through the season, scoring 277 points, which is the highest losing score ever (Nicky Hayden won the title with just 252 points). It was an incredible change for Sete, who was nicknamed "Hollywood" due to his love of the limelight, and the fact that he was as temperamental and prone to histrionics as the average Hollywood star. Now he was a contender.

In 2004, Valentino Rossi switched to Yamaha for the seemingly impossible task of winning on the ill-handling and dog-slow Yamaha M1. It was Sete's big chance on the sweet handling, high-powered V5 Honda. The Catalan won another 4 races, but Rossi achieved the impossible and won the title. During the course of the year was the incident that would destroy Sete Gibernau's championship hopes. At Qatar, Rossi's mechanics sneaked onto the grid the night before the race and performed burnouts on his grid spot with a scooter to improve the grip. Rossi was demoted to the back of the grid, and crashed in the race while trying too hard to recover the deficit. Apoplectic with rage, and convinced that it was Gibernau's team who ratted him out, Valentino Rossi cast a gypsy curse on Gibernau, saying that he would never win another race.

Now, people argue as to whether Italian motorcycle racers have the ability to cast gypsy curses, even if they are multiple world champions, but sure enough, Gibernau never won another race.

In 2006, Sete switched to Ducati to ride their red-painted 990cc missile. It was a disaster. Sete had a mechanical failure while leading a race, and it all went downhill from there. At his home race of Barcelona, Gibernau clipped his team mate Loris Capirossi's bike with his brake lever. He looped the Ducati forwards, causing a terrifying pile up that caused nasty injuries to himself, Capirossi, and Marco Melandri. To top that, on the way out of the circuit his ambulance crashed into a bus. Later in the year Ducati announced that Sete was being dumped for the much cheaper Casey Stoner (an unexpectedly brilliant move, in hindsight). At the second-last race of the year, Stoner crashed, Sete hit his bike and mangled his collarbone for about the 439th time.

Sete cried enough. His collarbone was held together with duct tape and bailer twine, and none of the rides on offer were very tempting. He retired from MotoGP. A strange GP career, but an illustrious one. Nobody else was anywhere near Rossi during those two years. Nobody else was important enough to warrant a gypsy curse from The Doctor. Nobody else has scored 277 points and gone home empty handed.

So why on earth would he return to MotoGP? What is there to gain? Sure, he's probably still very quick, but he'll never win the title on a privateer Ducati. The only way is down for him. He doesn't need the money. He's rich, and comes from a rich family. Is it because he misses the glamour? Old Hollywood Gibernau just can't stand the anonymity? Or has he just gone stark raving mad? The stress, the pressure, the injuries. Maybe Sete has just gone out of his tree.

MotoGP: Post-Misano Musings

Now that the dust has settled from the San Marino round of the MotoGP championship at Misano, here are the main talking points that came up: Casey's constant crashing, and Pedrosa ditching les pneus français for most honorable number one Japanese tyres.

Stoner
The little Australian world champion was addicted to crashing in his younger days (hell, he still doesn't look a day over 12.) Like all addicts, Casey has suffered a relapse. That losing battle with Rossi at Laguna has rattled him severely. Stoner claimed Rossi's passing moves were too hard, worse than he's seen for years. He obviously hasn't watched any World Superbikes lately, where those kinds of forceful passes are so common that TV commentator James Whitham's usual cry when he sees a hard move, "Have some of that!" has almost become a catchphrase.

Casey fell off at Laguna during a huge battle with Rossi that made him lose his cool. His desperation to avoid another such battle has led him to fall off at the following two races. (Thanks to those of you who voted in the last poll, where 76% of you thought that Rossi had Stoner rattled. Good call, people.) Rossi has finally discovered the Stoner/Ducati weakness. They don't like it up 'em!

Pedrosa
The eency-weency, teeny-weeny, itty-bitty Spaniard has been even more sour-faced than usual lately. You thought that Rossi turned into a whinger when he fell out with Michelin? You ain't seen nothing! At least it's less of a surprise that Pedrosa would spit the dummy and chuck the toys out of the pram, considering that he could be mistaken for a 6 month old baby. Such is the strength of Pedrosa's hatred for Michelin (he didn't even want to be on frog-sourced rubber this year), and the strength of his personal mananger Alberto Puig's control over HRC, that the Repsol Honda team will run Dani on Bridgestone tyres, starting immediately.

Changing tyres mid-season? What the hell? This has obviously been on the cards for a little while. Some of the satellite Honda bikes have been on Bridgestones for a couple of years, so HRC have data about how to make a Honda work on Bridgestones. Just to check that this data was applicable to the factory Honda, HRC cunningly gave Bridgestone runner Shinya Nakano a full-fat Dani Pedrosa bike, complete with his favoured steel valve springs. Nakano has had a couple of good showings and set some fast laps. This proves that the Bridgestone setup data accumulated by the Honda Gresini team can be applied to the factory Repsol Honda.

Sure, it's a big risk to switch tyre companies mid-season, if you actually care about this year's championship result. But Dani and HRC don't really care. This year is lost, and they are using the last few races as the best kind of testing there is: racing. Add to that the fact that Honda know all about how Bridgestones work on Dani's bike, thanks to Shinya. This is definitely not the same as Rossi's switch to Bridgestones, which nobody had ever bolted to a Yamaha M1 before. Honda don't need a genius like Rossi's Aussie engineer Jeremy Burgess, they just need an HRC engineer who has worked in the Gresini garage. Simple.

The switch will be a major psychological boost for the po-faced Spaniard, and he's a damned quick rider and fast learner. How he will fare for the rest of the season is anybody's guess, but he could surprise us all.